Agenda item

To consider the attached report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer.

The Standards Committee considered the attached report at its meeting on 02 May.  The recommendations of the Committee will be circulated in due course. 

Public Participation

The Chairman reported receipt of a question from Mr Phil Matthews, Chairman of the Wiltshire Involvement Network, details of which were presented along with the response from the Leader of the Council.

Details of the question and response are attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes.

Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cabinet member on the Focus Group on the Review of the Constitution presented a report which explained the background to the review of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny arrangements in the light of experience since the inception of the unitary authority.  The views of the Standards Committee dated 2 May 2012 were also presented.

The report also sought approval to implement new arrangements resulting from the review. Details of the current and proposed committee structure charts were presented for Council’s consideration. Cllr Wheeler moved the recommendations which were duly seconded.  These included having an Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee with three sub-committees covering Health, Children’s Services and Environment with a standing task group on budget overview and other ad-hoc task groups as required.

Cllr Tony Deane proposed the following amendment to the printed recommendations which was duly seconded:

To amend paragraph (2) to include a third bullet point to read as follows:

·         Rename the three sub-committees as “select committees”

To add a new paragraph (6) to read as follows:

(6)       To review the operation of the arrangements within 18 months.

To add a new paragraph (7) to read as follows:

(7)       To deal with the expected work programme, six meetings for each Select Committee per year will be fixed in the Council diary.  This is in the knowledge that extra meetings may be arranged if necessary and the planned meetings may be cancelled if there is insufficient business’.

Cllr Jeff Osborn explained that efforts had been made for some time to secure a protocol to govern the relationship between scrutiny and the Executive. Although elements of the protocol had been included in the section on core values of the new arrangements, he considered that this fell short of what had been included in the protocol. Cllr Osborn explained that a fully resourced and structured overview and scrutiny arrangement was at the heart of being able to challenge the Executive and secure on behalf of council tax payers, good value for money.

With the consent of Council, the amendments from Cllr Deane were incorporated into the motion and it was

Resolved:

That Council agrees:

(1)       the core values as set out in paragraph 7 of the report presented;

(2)       the structure and terms of reference of the revised overview and scrutiny arrangements as set out in Appendix B of the report presented subject to

·                     In the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee box, replace the fourth bullet with “Endorse the formation of task groups/appoint representative to project groups and delegate responsibility as appropriate”

·                     In each of the three Sub-Committee boxes, remove the wording “with the agreement of the Management Committee”.

·                     Rename the three Sub-Committees as “Select Committees”

(3)       to authorise the Monitoring Officer to make any consequential constitutional amendments necessary to give effect to the revised arrangements;

(4)       to note the new Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee would be responsible for determining how ongoing legacy business from the current arrangements should be managed;

(5)       to note the intention to maintain the Extended Leadership Team working group to assist in implementing and developing these revised arrangements;

(6)       to review the operation of the arrangements within 18 months; and

(7)       to deal with the expected work programme, six meetings for each Select Committee per year will be fixed in the Council diary.  This is in the knowledge that extra meetings may be arranged if necessary and the planned meetings may be cancelled if there is insufficient business.